Old Hemp and Border Collie History: Where the Breed Came From

Old Hemp, a tricolor sheepdog born in Northumberland, England, in September 1893, is the dog most modern Border Collies trace back to. The breed itself comes from the hill farms along the border between England and Scotland, where shepherds bred collies for one job: moving sheep quietly and well.

Working collies were on those hills long before Old Hemp. What he did was fix the style we now call the Border Collie, and the name followed in 1915. Below you’ll find where the breed came from, how old it is, the people and dogs that shaped it, and how it went from sheep farms to family homes.

Where Are Border Collies From?

Border Collies are from the United Kingdom. Their name points to their most likely home, the Anglo-Scottish border: the Cheviot Hills, Northumberland and the Scottish Borders. Old Hemp was born in West Woodburn, Northumberland, a few miles south of the border, and the early breeding and trialing happened on both sides of it.

So if someone asks what country Border Collies come from, the honest answer is both England and Scotland. Wales played its part too. The first recorded sheepdog trial was held at Bala, in North Wales,, and Welsh hill farms have bred working collies for generations.

How Old Is the Border Collie Breed?

The Border Collie as a defined breed is about 130 years old. It dates from Old Hemp’s birth in 1893, and the name “Border Collie” has been in use since 1915. The working collies it came from are much older, going back centuries on British hill farms.

Here are the dates that matter most:

Year	What happened
1873	First recorded sheepdog trial, at Bala in North Wales
1880	The “Great International Collie Trial” in Philadelphia, usually called the first US sheepdog trial
1893	Old Hemp is born in Northumberland, bred by Adam Telfer
1901	Old Hemp dies, after siring around 200 pups
1906	The International Sheep Dog Society (ISDS) is founded
1915	ISDS secretary James Reid first uses the name “Border Collie”
1963	Wiston Cap is born; he wins the Supreme Championship in 1965
1976	The UK Kennel Club recognizes the breed
1995	The American Kennel Club recognizes the breed

What Were Border Collies Bred For?

Border Collies were bred to gather, drive and pen sheep on large, rough hill farms. A good dog could run out a long way, bring a scattered flock to the shepherd and move it through gates without a lot of noise. Shepherds picked breeding dogs for how they worked, not how they looked.

That is why Border Collies still come in so many colors, coat types and ear sets. For most of their history nobody cared about any of that. They cared about stamina, brains, a calm way with stock and a dog that would listen from half a mile away.

The same breeding explains the dog on your couch. The drive to work all day, the fixation on moving things and the need for a job all come straight from the hills, which is why a pet Border Collie needs a lot of daily exercise and something to think about.

Border Collie Ancestors: Where Did the Breed Originate?

The Border Collie’s ancestors were the landrace collies of Britain, working sheepdogs that varied from valley to valley. They were not a breed in the modern sense. Each area kept the dogs that suited its sheep, its ground and its shepherds.

You will often read that the line starts with Roman herding dogs brought to Britain, later crossed with smaller spitz-type dogs that came with the Vikings. It makes a good story, and both peoples did keep dogs. There is no record, though, that links either one to the Border Collie, so treat it as tradition rather than proven history.

What we can document is closer to home. Shepherds’ dogs show up in British writing from the 1500s on, and by the late 1700s writers were describing dogs that sound a lot like today’s collies. One old type, the Cumberland Sheepdog from northwest England, is now extinct. Some Cumberland dogs were called Border Collies in the early 1900s, and the type may have been absorbed into the breed.

Those same landrace collies also gave rise to other breeds. The Rough and Smooth Collies were shaped for the show ring from the mid 1800s, and the Australian Kelpie was developed from collies taken out from Scotland and northern England.

Old Hemp: The First Border Collie

Old Hemp is widely called the first Border Collie and the father of the breed. He was born in September 1893 in West Woodburn, Northumberland, and died in May 1901, aged about seven and a half. His sire was a dog called Roy and his dam was Meg, a black, strong-eyed bitch.

He didn’t look much like the classic black and white Border Collie. Old Hemp was tricolor, with only a little white trim. In his day that didn’t matter at all. What mattered was how he handled sheep, and nobody had seen anything quite like it.

The Old Hemp entry on Wikipedia lists the books and articles his story comes from, including the sheepdog writer Eric Halsall.

Adam Telfer and Old Hemp

Adam Telfer was the Northumberland shepherd who bred and owned Old Hemp. He was an experienced sheepdog man, and he still rated Hemp above every dog he had known. Telfer’s line about him is the one people quote today: he “flashed like a meteor across the sheepdog horizon.”

Halsall wrote that Hemp “was born with such knowledge of his craft that he never required training,” and that “none who saw him ever forgot him.” Allow for some old-timer’s pride in those lines. Still, everyone who wrote about Hemp agreed he was something special.

How Old Hemp Worked Sheep

Old Hemp worked quietly. Many sheepdogs of his time were loud, rough dogs that pushed stock with barking and noise. Hemp moved sheep with his body position and a calm, powerful presence, and the sheep responded to him easily.

Shepherds liked what they saw so much that Hemp’s way of working became the Border Collie style. That low crouch, the hard stare known as “eye” and the steady approach you see at any sheepdog trial all go back to dogs like him.

Old Hemp’s Pups and His Place in the Breed

Old Hemp sired around 200 pups. Shepherds from across the region brought their bitches to Telfer, because they wanted a dog that worked like Hemp. His pups carried his style into farms all over the Borders, and their pups did the same.

Hemp died before the ISDS stud book began, but the society later gave him the registration number 9. Its stud book now holds more than 300,000 entries, and most of the dogs in it go back to him somewhere. You will see claims that every Border Collie alive descends from Old Hemp. That is likely true of most registered dogs, but nobody can prove it for all of them.

Why Are They Called Border Collies?

They are called Border Collies because the breed comes from the border country between England and Scotland. James Reid, secretary of the International Sheep Dog Society, first used the name in 1915. He wanted a way to tell the society’s working dogs apart from the Kennel Club’s show collies.

By then the show collie had gone its own way. After about 1860, show breeders had shaped the Rough and Smooth Collies for looks, while the working dogs on the hills were still bred only for the job. Reid’s name drew a clear line between the two.

The word “collie” itself is older and its origin is uncertain. The usual explanation ties it to an old word for black or coal, after the dark coats of early sheepdogs. There’s more on that, plus names inspired by the breed’s history, in our guide to Border Collie names.

Sheepdog Trials and the International Sheep Dog Society

Sheepdog trials turned local bragging into a way to measure dogs, and they did more than anything else to shape the breed. The first recorded trial took place at Bala, North Wales, in 1873. Trials soon spread across Britain, and the dogs that won them became the most wanted sires.

In 1906, English and Scottish sheep men met and formed the International Sheep Dog Society. Its aim was to improve the shepherd’s dog. The first International trial was held at Gullane, Scotland, soon after, and the society has run one almost every year since. Its office is now in Bedford, England, and it registers over 6,000 Border Collie pups a year.

The ISDS has never set a standard for looks. A dog earns its place through its working bloodlines, and its breeding is judged by how it handles sheep. That one choice is why working Border Collies still vary so much in appearance.

Wiston Cap: The Dog on the ISDS Badge

Wiston Cap is the most influential Border Collie after Old Hemp. He was born on 28 September 1963, bred by W. S. Hetherington and handled by John Richardson. He won the ISDS Supreme Championship in 1965, when he was not yet two years old.

Cap went on to become one of the most used stud dogs in the breed’s history. He sired three Supreme Champions and was grandsire to three more, and his bloodline appears in most modern Border Collies. The crouching dog on the ISDS badge is Wiston Cap, drawn in the classic herding pose.

You’ll sometimes see him searched as “Winston Cap.” The farm name is Wiston, with no N.

How Border Collies Spread Around the World

Border Collies went wherever British sheep farming went. From the late 1800s, good working dogs were shipped to New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Canada and South America, often traveling with the shepherds who had trained them.

New Zealand and Australia

Collies were in New Zealand by 1858, though early records don’t say what type. In the late 1890s, James Lilico of Christchurch imported working dogs from Britain. The best known was Hindhope Jed, a bitch born in Scotland in 1895 who had already won trials there.

In 1901, Jed moved again, to the King and McLeod stud at Canonbar in New South Wales, where she did very well at Australian trials. New Zealand later developed its own Heading Dog from Border Collie stock, and Australia’s working dogs owe a lot to these imports.

The United States and Canada

Working collies came to America with the sheep. After the Civil War, wealthy ranchers began importing flocks from Britain, and Scottish shepherds sailed with them, bringing their dogs. When they needed more, they sent home for the kind they knew.

Accounts from the gold rush years say it took seven mounted cowboys to move 1,000 head of cattle, while one herder and one good dog could drive the same number of sheep. Those dogs were collies. Idaho rancher Andy Little, a former shepherd from Moffat in the Scottish Borders, arrived in 1894 with two dogs and went on to keep more than 1,000 working collies.

In 1880, Philadelphia hosted the “Great International Collie Trial,” usually called the first sheepdog trial in the United States. The name Border Collie didn’t exist yet, so every dog entered was just a collie. Newspaper reports name two different winners: Oscar, a black and tan dog imported from Scotland, and Tom, a local stockyard drover’s dog owned by Charles Pugh.

Kennel Club Recognition and the Old-Style Border Collie

For most of its history the Border Collie was a working dog only. The UK Kennel Club recognized the breed in 1976, and the American Kennel Club followed in 1995 after decades of listing it in its Miscellaneous Class. Many working-dog groups opposed AKC recognition, worried that showing for looks would cost the breed its ability.

That split is still with us. Today you’ll find two broad kinds of Border Collie:

• Working-bred dogs, usually ISDS or similar registry dogs, bred for herding. They vary a lot in coat, color and build, and they tend to be lean, intense and very driven. This is the old-style Border Collie most farmers know.
• Show-bred dogs, bred to a written breed standard. They are often fuller-coated and more uniform in looks, and many have a slightly softer energy level, though they are still busy, clever dogs.

Comparing an old photo of Old Hemp with a modern show champion shows how far looks can drift once a breed enters the ring. Working dogs from good trial lines look a lot more like Hemp did.

Famous Border Collies

Old Hemp and Wiston Cap are the two dogs every Border Collie historian names first. Hindhope Jed made her mark on two continents. Outside the trial field, the best known is Chaser, a South Carolina Border Collie who learned the names of 1,022 toys with her owner, psychology professor John Pilley.

Others include Fly and Rex from the film Babe, the loyal Shep of Fort Benton, Montana, and Owd Bob from Alfred Ollivant’s 1898 novel. You’ll find short stories on each of them in the famous dogs section of our list of Border Collie names.

Border Collies Today

Border Collies still work sheep and cattle on farms around the world. More of them now live as family dogs, though, and they shine in agility, flyball, obedience and dog sports of every kind.

Knowing the history helps you live with one. A dog bred for generations to gather sheep will try to herd children, chase cars and stare at the cat if it has nothing better to do. The breed’s Border Collie temperament makes much more sense once you picture those hills.

Give that working brain a job with steady Border Collie training, and if you’re still choosing a breed, see how they stack up in our Border Collie vs Australian Shepherd comparison. Plenty of working-bred dogs end up needing new homes, too, and you can find them through Border Collie rescues in every state.

Border Collie History FAQ

Who was the first Border Collie?

Old Hemp is usually called the first Border Collie. Adam Telfer bred him in Northumberland in 1893, and his quiet, strong-eyed way of working became the breed’s style. Collies herded sheep long before him, but Hemp’s 200 or so pups are where the modern breed begins.

How long have Border Collies been around?

Border Collies have been around as a defined breed for about 130 years, since Old Hemp was born in 1893. The name dates from 1915. Working collies of the same general type herded sheep in Britain for centuries before that, but nobody kept records of them as a breed.

What country are Border Collies from?

Border Collies are from the United Kingdom, specifically the border country between England and Scotland. Old Hemp was born in Northumberland, England, and many early breeders and trials were in the Scottish Borders. Welsh shepherds also did a lot to develop the working dog.

How old was Old Hemp when he died?

Old Hemp was about seven and a half when he died. He was born in September 1893 and died in May 1901. That’s young by today’s standards; most pet Border Collies now live 12 to 15 years, as covered in our guide to Border Collie lifespan.

Are all Border Collies descended from Old Hemp?

Most registered Border Collies have Old Hemp in their pedigree somewhere, because he sired so many pups and his descendants dominated breeding. Saying that every single Border Collie descends from him goes further than the records can show, especially for farm dogs that were never registered.

When were Border Collies first bred?

The modern Border Collie was first bred in the 1890s, starting with Old Hemp and his offspring in Northumberland. Shepherds had bred working collies for their herding skill long before that. The breed got its name in 1915 and kennel club recognition in 1976 (UK) and 1995 (US).

What is the Border Collie’s original purpose?

The Border Collie’s original purpose was herding sheep on hill farms. Shepherds needed a dog that could gather a flock over rough, open ground, bring it in quietly and pen it on command. That is still the job working Border Collies do, and the reason pet ones need so much activity.